AG Healey assails Trump at South Shore regional forum

Attorney General Maura Healey on Monday night, Jan. 30, assailed President Donald Trump as “a president who doesn’t seem to understand what is lawful.”

Speaking at a town-hall style forum at Derby Academy in Hingham, Healey said Trump’s weekend executive order against refugees and immigration from some Muslim countries is unconstitutional, and showed his “callousness.”

“He does not have a mandate for much of what he promised,” she told a packed, overwhelmingly Democratic auditorium audience of 500. “And we are going to remind him.”

Healey’s political committee and South Shore Democrats had scheduled the event long before Trump’s Friday night order set off waves of protests at airports in Boston, New York and other cities.The forum was the fifth Healey has held around the state since the 2016 election.

Trump campaigned on a pledge to clamp down on Middle East refugees, and within hours after he issued his Friday order, travelers from Syria and six other Middle East countries were detained and in some instances forced onto return flights, even though they had visas or were legal permanent U.S. residents.

The order also temporarily shut down the entire U.S. refugee program, leaving some refugees in legal limbo.

Healey repeatedly said the executive order is “unlawful” and “unconstitutional.” She told her audience that she’ll join Washington’s governor and attorney general and the American Civil Liberties Union’s challenges to the order.

On Sunday she’d already joined 15 other state attorneys general in a statement condemning the temporary immigration and refugee shutdowns.

“I can tell you that your fear and concern is shared across the country,” she said.

During a question-answer session, Healey spent as much time urging her audience -- and concerned citizens in general -- to get involved in many ways, from calling Congress members on issues to volunteering as English language tutors for immigrants.

“I need you to stay strong and stay focused,” she said. “People make stuff happen in this country. People need to speak out, day after day after day.”

For starters, she suggested that everyone quit paying attention to Trump’s incessant tweets.

“Pay attention to what he’s doing, not what he’s tweeting,” she said.

Healey drew a ripple of “oh no” reactions when she said Trump may soon issue a nexecutive order that would strip anti-discrimination protection for lesbians, gays and transgender people in a wide range of areas, from employment and social services to businesses and adoption services.

Some news sites reported Monday that the order would be cast as a religious-freedom action.

“We’re going to have to stay tuned,” Healey said. “We’ll see what we’re dealing with next week in court.”